Books

Board Training and Matching: Serving on a nonprofit board of directors is an attractive opportunity for corporate leaders wishing to make a strategic investment in an organization. These programs equip corporate professionals for effective board service and connect them with the right nonprofit organization.

At Common Impact, we consistently engage in conversations with our corporate partners to ensure programs drive nonprofit performance. Workforce capability is our largest untapped philanthropic asset. We cannot solve our communities’ greatest challenges — and the issues that so often divide us — if we don’t tap into the talents and empathy of our people.

Particularly in times of crisis, people want to get involved in a meaningful way. They need a connection point, a way to transform those intentions into action. Skills-based volunteerism answers this need by channeling the talents and expertise of caring professionals to the challenges they are best positioned to address. The result: deeper, more strategic civic engagement; a more conscious, resilient workforce; and the acceleration of solutions to social challenges, both the ongoing ones and those exacerbated by COVID-19 and racial injustice.

SKILLS-BASED VOLUNTEERING: MEASUREMENTS OF SUCCESS

Employee Engagement • 86% of SBV participants met new colleagues; 93% said new connections will help solve future business challenges. • 96% of Common Impact participants believe their project made a real difference to their nonprofit partner. • Engaged employees extend 57% more effort and are 87% less likely to resign.

Talent Development • 91% of HR executives believe SBV adds value to training and development programs. • Employees are three times more likely to gain work-related skills development through pro bono than traditional volunteering.

Millennials • Two-thirds of millennials say they won’t work for a company that doesn’t have strong corporate responsibility programming. • Gallup reports millennial turnover costs the U.S. economy $30.5 billion annually.

THE CHARLES SCHWAB PRO BONO CHALLENGE: MAKING A DIFFERENCE FOR NONPROFITS AND COMMUNITIES NATIONWIDE DURING COVID-19.

Common Impact partner Charles Schwab has long recognized the benefits of skilled volunteerism and offers an annual opportunity through its Pro Bono Challenge. Now in its sixth year, the Pro Bono Challenge is a skills-based flash consulting event that will enable Schwab employees to apply their business expertise to building capacity for nonprofits in 12 U.S. communities.

The 2020 Pro Bono Challenge served multiple Phoenix-area nonprofit organizations, including the Arizona Foundation for Women, Boys Girls Clubs of the Valley – Arizona, Central Arizona Shelter Services, Furnishing Dignity, Junior Achievement of Arizona, OCJ Kids, Phoenix ToolBank and the St. Vincent de Paul Society.

In 2020, the Pro Bono Challenge engaged more than 370 Schwab employees in service to 60 nonprofits and delivered nearly $600,000 in skilled volunteer consulting in the areas of financial sustainability, crisis communications, technology and human resources, among others.

Culture Renovation

Most business leaders understand the power of a dynamic, positive culture — but almost every effort to change culture fails. Why? The approach is often all wrong. Rather than attempt to “transform” a new culture from the ground up, leaders need to instead spearhead a culture renovation. It’s all about keeping what works, changing what needs to be changed, and ensuring proper care and maintenance — much like refurbishing and living in a beautiful historic home and improving its overall value. In Culture Renovation, the head of the world’s leading HR research firm — the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) — Kevin Oakes provides tangible, tactical insights drawn from a robust data set and informed by CEOs and HR leaders at many of the world’s top companies.

Culture Renovation: 18 Leadership Actions to Build an Unshakeable Company Kevin Oakes 352 pages McGraw-Hill Education Available 1/12/2021 $28.50

The Business of We

In today’s workplace, cross-cultural collaboration is essential to the survival of any business. Unfortunately, bringing together people from a variety of backgrounds can lead to “us vs. them” misunderstandings and clashes that work against the goals of the company. Too often, well-intentioned consultants and HR representatives attempt to solve these problems with a band-aid approach to situations that warrant comprehensive solutions. Diversity in virtually every U.S. organization has increased over the past 20 years, yet the closest we have come to a workplace best practices guide is online diversity training courses or methods of coaching “problem” executives to be more sensitive. Neither of these avenues leads to meaningful change.

The Business of We: The Proven Three-Step Process for Closing the Gap Between Us and Them in Your Workplace Laura Kriska 224 pages HarperCollins Leadership Available 1/12/2021 $19.99

The Man’s Guide to Corporate Culture

Movements such as Time’s Up and #MeToo have done an incredible job of bringing to light the issues women face in the workplace. Now, it’s time to give men the tools they need to be part of the solution. Studies have shown that 60% of male managers feel uncomfortable working one-on-one with their female colleagues. This means more than half of American male managers lack confidence in their ability to create an inclusive environment for all of their team members. The Man’s Guide to Corporate Culture is one of the only books that coaches men on how to be a part of the solution so they can engage female bosses, subordinates and peers in a way that builds cohesion instead of division.

The Man’s Guide to Corporate Culture: A Practical Guide to the New Normal and Relating to Female Coworkers in the Modern Workplace Heather Zumarraga 208 pages HarperCollins Leadership Available 1/19/2021 $24.99